Provinciale Statenverkiezingen 2023

How do political campaigns target voters?

Methodology

In collaboration with Who Targets Me, we monitored over 900 Dutch political advertisers during the 2023 Provinciale Statenverkiezingen (Provincial elections) to better understand how campaigns use different targeting methods made available by Meta. To do this, we used data from the Meta Ad Library, using the new ‘Audience’ data which gives some detail on how pages target their ads.

To better understand the regional election, we kept only advertisers who:

  1. Advertised in the last 7 days (February 23rd - March 1st 2023)
  2. Advertised in the last 30 days (January 31st - March 1st 2023)

Note: Meta only provides 7, 30 and 90 days windows for the targeting data in their Ad Library. Meta’s data also lags by a few days. We will update this report as soon as new data is available.

Topline Statistics

January 31st - March 1st 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend €155,213 and ran 2318 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

SP

7


1. SP (€37,672)
2. Lilian Marijnissen (€3,316)
3. SP Noord-Brabant (€210)

258

€41,626

PvdA

20


1. Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) (€18,279)
2. PvdA Noord Holland (€4,426)
3. PvdA Limburg (€2,167)

279

€31,023

GroenLinks

5


1. GroenLinks (€21,892)
2. GroenLinks Brabant (€494)
3. GroenLinks Renkum (€100)

75

€22,686

VVD

23


1. VVD (€5,565)
2. VVD Flevoland (€2,217)
3. VVD Drenthe (€634)

252

€11,437

Volt Nederland

1


1. Volt Nederland (€10,026)

216

€10,026

FvD

3


1. Forum voor Democratie -FVD (€8,189)
2. Wybren van Haga (€412)
3. Forum voor Democratie Zeeland (€100)

16

€8,701

CDA

12


1. CDA (€5,372)
2. CDA Zeeland (€434)
3. CDA Noord-Holland (€292)

83

€7,009

PVV

6


1. Geert Wilders (€3,792)
2. PVV Enschede (€196)
3. PVV Fryslan (€184)

31

€4,520

Ja21

1


1. Ja21 (€3,514)

261

€3,514

ChristenUnie

8


1. ChristenUnie Flevoland (€876)
2. ChristenUnie Noord-Holland (€656)
3. ChristenUnie Fryslân (€402)

107

€2,532

PvdD

9


1. Partij voor de Dieren (€541)
2. Partij voor de Dieren Noord-Holland (€474)
3. Partij voor de Dieren Rijnland (€441)

133

€2,272

DENK

2


1. DENK (€2,032)
2. Mahmut Sungur DENK (€200)

364

€2,232

50PLUS

4


1. 50PLUSpartij (€1,269)
2. 50PLUS-Overijssel (€514)
3. 50PLUSFlevoland (€125)

54

€2,008

BVNL

1


1. Belang van Nederland - BVNL (€1,922)

31

€1,922

D66

6


1. D66 (€1,084)
2. D66 Woerden (€100)
3. D66 Zeeland (€100)

104

€1,584

Alliantie

2


1. Henriette van Hedel - Alliantie (€1,060)
2. Alliantie (€100)

17

€1,160

SGP

4


1. SGP provincie Gelderland (€620)
2. SGP (€141)
3. SGP Tholen (€100)

37

€961

February 23rd - March 1st 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend €70,645 and ran 1578 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

GroenLinks

3


1. GroenLinks (€17,749)
2. GroenLinks Brabant (€494)
3. GroenLinks Limburg (€100)

64

€18,343

SP

4


1. SP (€14,020)
2. Lilian Marijnissen (€1,041)
3. SP Noord-Brabant (€111)

96

€15,272

Volt Nederland

1


1. Volt Nederland (€10,026)

216

€10,026

PvdA

13


1. PvdA Zuid-Holland (€1,801)
2. PvdA Noord Holland (€1,744)
3. PvdA Limburg (€1,396)

137

€7,630

VVD

16


1. VVD (€1,762)
2. VVD Flevoland (€483)
3. VVD Drenthe (€205)

187

€3,866

ChristenUnie

8


1. ChristenUnie Flevoland (€814)
2. ChristenUnie Noord-Holland (€344)
3. ChristenUnie Fryslân (€304)

89

€2,042

PVV

6


1. Geert Wilders (€1,226)
2. PVV Hengelo (€100)
3. PVV Den Bosch (€100)

22

€1,726

Ja21

1


1. Ja21 (€1,654)

140

€1,654

BVNL

1


1. Belang van Nederland - BVNL (€1,598)

29

€1,598

FvD

2


1. Forum voor Democratie -FVD (€1,140)
2. Wybren van Haga (€374)

8

€1,514

PvdD

8


1. Partij voor de Dieren Noord-Holland (€331)
2. Partij voor de Dieren Rijnland (€279)
3. Partij voor de Dieren (€244)

102

€1,356

CDA

8


1. CDA Zeeland (€327)
2. CDA Noord-Holland (€292)
3. CDA Flevoland (€111)

57

€1,230

50PLUS

4


1. 50PLUSpartij (€749)
2. 50PLUS-Overijssel (€126)
3. 50plus Zuid-Holland (€100)

37

€1,075

Alliantie

1


1. Henriette van Hedel - Alliantie (€1,060)

14

€1,060

DENK

2


1. DENK (€715)
2. Mahmut Sungur DENK (€183)

304

€898

D66

5


1. D66 (€284)
2. D66 Woerden (€100)
3. D66 Zeeland (€100)

40

€684

SGP

4


1. SGP provincie Gelderland (€330)
2. SGP (€141)
3. SGP Tholen (€100)

36

€671

Spending per Targeting Criteria

How much did campaigns spend on different targeting methods?

January 31st - March 1st 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 23rd - March 1st 2023 (Last 7 days)

Top Targeted Audiences

Here, we show the top targeted audiences for each party (ranked by amount of Euro spend). Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”.

January 31st - March 1st 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 23rd - March 1st 2023 (Last 7 days)

Top Contested Audiences

Here, we show the top most contested audiences, i.e. where all parties have spent considerable amounts of money competing to reach voters with the same interests. Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”.

January 31st - March 1st 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 23rd - March 1st 2023 (Last 7 days)

Age Targeting

January 31st - March 1st 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 23rd - March 1st 2023 (Last 7 days)

Gender Targeting

January 31st - March 1st 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 23rd - March 1st 2023 (Last 7 days)

Education Targeting

January 31st - March 1st 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 23rd - March 1st 2023 (Last 7 days)

Job Targeting

January 31st - March 1st 2023 (Last 30 days)

February 23rd - March 1st 2023 (Last 7 days)